Just for fun, and the upcoming fur season (not so fun), I thought I’d do a fill-in-the-blank contest just to see who’s clever. The author of the winning blurbs gets a digital copy of the photo below featuring their blurbs emailed to them for use around the inter-webs. Put on your thinking caps, and leave a comment below with your entry!
• ABC News went underwater in the Gulf with Philippe Cousteau Jr., grandson of famous explorer Jacques Cousteau, and he described what he saw as “one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen underwater.”
Meanwhile, BP continues to stonewall the American people about the growing Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, even while the company is reaping millions of dollars in profits a day from its other federal leases.
The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to bar BP from receiving U.S. government contracts. Suspension of BP contracts would mean the loss of billions of dollars and effectively stop the company from drilling in federally controlled oil fields both on and offshore.
Prior to the current Gulf spill, EPA had linked BP to at least four instances of criminal misconduct, and BP has paid tens of millions in fines for environmental crimes. According to the public interest investigative journalists at Pro Publica, the EPA is considering re-evaluating BP and determining whether the company’s actions leading up to and following the Deep Horizon spill are evidence of an institutional problem inside BP that would qualify for debarment action.
• Skin Trade, a documentary that I had the honor of being in, will premiere in Los Angeles, CA on June 10th. The evening is also going to be a benefit for ARME.
Get tickets: http://www.skintradethemovie.com/screenings.php
• An interview with designer John Bartlett over at Tim Groen has me pretty inspired and excited! We all know how rare it is to meet other fashion people interested in compassionate lifestyle and cruelty-free design. Bartlett, who is ardently anti-fur and veg, has committed to eliminating all leather from future collections, saying “I decided that I’m not going to work in leather anymore at all.”
• 42,000 gallons of crude oil are spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico very 24 hours. Experts say it could take months to stop the leak that has already covered 600 square miles and threatens wildlife areas and coastlines, like the sensitive Louisiana coastal ecosystem and the Mississippi Delta, now mere miles from the slick. The explosion that caused the oil rig to collapse and killed 11 crew members remains a mystery. BP (Beyond Petroleum), Transocean (the rig’s operational company) and government have not been able to stop the oil from spewing out of a broken pipe 5,000 feet below sea level. And lastly, the blowout-preventer – a device designed to stop a leak in scenarios like this, did not deploy and remains unable to be triggered. Burn the oil. Skim and collect the oil. There is no harmless solution and, in the fashion of an addict that never learns the lesson, the oil economy chugs on. We will all be reassured that “everything is being done” and “no one could have predicted this” and “it’s an unfortunate but unavoidable risk“. Who is doing the reassuring? Well, according to a NYT article yesterday, BP is and their profits more than doubled in the first quarter of last year, thanks to increased oil prices.
How can we ever move on from oil? Will these disasters ever cease and, if not, what does that mean?
Rock-star photographer Aliya Naumoff shot these awesome photos for the Spring/Summer 2010 collection from April77.
The brains behind the line, Parisian-Vegan, Brice Partouce, was inspired by the late-80s/early-90s music scenes of noise, hardcore, grunge and shoegazing.
Featuring coarse, open-end denim, and an unkempt, vintage, preppy appeal, oiled cotton jacket, flanel shirts and chino pants.
This is the last season April 77 will use any wool (they are already fur, leather, and feather-free) and by Autumn Winter 2010, the line will be completely vegan.
It’s Fashion week in NYC! Here is my interview with Victoria Bartlett about her show at the Chelsea Piers for Spring/Summer 2010.
In regard to her sponsorship by the Humane Society of the United States, she had this to say:
“I’ve always been anti-fur – I love my pets…and I could never see them being worn. It’s a very human time right now, and what’s the sense in more carnage? There are other things in life to celebrate and design doesn’t have to be draped with dead animals.” - Voctoria Bartlett
